Windows Notebook Shipments Surpassed Those Of Tablets Once Again In The Post PC Era

Ever since Steve Jobs coined the term Post PC era, it became the buzz word and many analysts claimed that tablets will dwarf the sales of notebooks in couple of years. We are in 2014 now, notebook shipments are still more than that of tablets. With 49.1 million units shipped in the quarter, notebook shipments surpassed those of tablets for the first time since Q3 2013. Shipments in North America and EMEA were up 13% and 8% year on year, helped by good growth in Western Europe and the US. Customers who have bought a tablet already are finding it unnecessary to upgrade their tablet because there is very little innovation happened in the space. On the notebook side, the growth is supported by improving economic conditions, end of Windows XP support, low cost touch screen devices and more.

‘A slowdown in the pace of innovation is creating an issue for tablet vendors. The tablet market has quickly found itself in the same position the notebook market was in some years ago, with minimal increases in hardware performance forming the basis for an argument to upgrade,’ said Canalys Senior Analyst Tim Coulling. ‘But when considering the most common tasks that tablets are asked to perform, the need for more horsepower is often not evident. Vendors will need to work harder to give reasons to upgrade if things are to improve in Q3. In addition, as smart phone screen sizes increase, the potential for such products to disrupt the market for 7″ tablets is also increasing.’

When you combine desktops, laptops and tablets, Apple remains the top OEM. But Lenovo comes in as a close second with less than a million devices as the difference. HP, Dell and Samsung are the other top 5 OEMs in the list.